Train strike dates: When is the train drivers’ walk-out and how will it impact passengers?

National rail strikes by train drivers have entered their twenty second month with a collection of “rolling” walk-outs, one area at a time, throughout early April.

Members of the Aslef union have halted hundreds of trains on 5, 6 and 8 April. The intention is to disrupt providers on the 14 rail corporations in England which are managed by the UK authorities and represented by the Rail Delivery Group (RDG). Rolling strikes trigger most disruption for minimal lack of pay.

In addition, 5 days of additional time bans will trigger additional cancellations.

The earlier nationwide industrial motion by train drivers, comprising an additional time ban and rolling regional walk-outs, hit for 9 days from 29 January to six February.

Industrial motion by Aslef in a dispute over pay and working preparations started in July 2022. The union is demanding a no-strings pay award, however rail corporations – directed by ministers – say any enhance is contingent on radical reforms to working practices so as to cut back public subsidies.

During the dispute, a whole lot of tens of millions of journeys have been cancelled. Billions of kilos have been misplaced to the UK economic system – notably hospitality companies – and taxpayers are pumping money into an increasingly decrepit and unreliable railway to the tune of £90 per second on prime of the regular subsidy.

The quarrel has turn into more and more bitter, with no signal of any progress in direction of a settlement.

Caught in the center of a seemingly intractable dispute: the passenger. In a snap social media ballot for The Independent that garnered 2,142 responses, one in three passengers say they will completely journey much less after the industrial motion lastly ends.

In addition to the newest walk-outs by rail employees, commuters in the capital have been fearing two days of strikes by Aslef members who drive trains for the London Underground. But days earlier than the first deliberate walk-out, the motion was referred to as off.

However, Aslef has referred to as a further strike and additional time ban at the UK’s flagship train operator, LNER, for later in April.

For passengers, these are the key questions and solutions.

Which rail corporations are concerned?

Aslef is in dispute with the 14 train operators which are contracted by the UK authorities to supply rail providers. They are:

Intercity operators:

Avanti West Coast

CrossNation

East Midlands Railway

Great Western Railway (GWR)

LNER

TransPennine Express

Southeast England commuter operators:

C2C

Greater Anglia

GTR (Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Southern, Thameslink)

Southeastern

South Western Railway (together with the Island Line on the Isle of Wight)

Operators specializing in the Midlands and north of England:

Chiltern Railways

Northern Trains

West Midlands Railway (together with London Northwestern Railway)

When are the train drivers strolling out?

Drivers belonging to the Aslef union will strike in the following sample:

Friday 5 April

Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, West Midlands Railway and CrossNation. The intention is to trigger most disruption on key intercity traces in addition to Midland commuter providers.

To additional complicate issues, commuters on the Great Western line have confronted rush hour journey disruption after a freight train derailed between Reading and London Paddington, with some providers cancelled and the the rest delayed.

Saturday 6 April

Chiltern, GWR, LNER, Northern and TransPennine Express. This strike is designed to hit rail passengers in the north and west of England, in addition to the day’s soccer programme. In the Premier League, it will hit Newcastle followers travelling to Fulham in London.

Monday 8 April

C2C, Greater Anglia, Great Northern, Thameslink, Southeastern, Southern, Gatwick Express, South Western Railway.

What are the predicted results at every operator?

The Night Riviera sleeper train and the Gatwick Express will be cancelled all through the industrial motion interval.

For different operators, these are the seemingly service patterns .

Friday 5 April

The 4 train operators – Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, West Midlands Railway and CrossNation – cancelled all providers on the day.

“Avanti West Coast services on the days either side of the strike will also be affected,” the West Coast primary line operator stated.

Chiltern Railways warned people who find themselves pondering of switching to its London-Birmingham service: “Essential travel only, due to strike action on other operators.”

Saturday 6 April

Chiltern, Northern and TransPennine Express have cancelled all providers.

LNER is working a skeleton service on core traces between round 7am and 7pm. Its primary Edinburgh-Newcastle-York-London line will have at the least one train an hour, with some extra trains on the southern a part of the community.

GWR will run no long-distance trains, however will join Reading with Oxford and Basingstoke, in addition to a hyperlink from Bristol to Cardiff and some department routes in Devon and Cornwall.

CrossNation is not on strike however warns its providers are anticipated to be extraordinarily busy, and urges potential passengers: “Please only travel if essential.”

Sunday 7 April

Although no industrial motion is going down, deliberate Network Rail engineering tasks will hamper many passengers hoping to journey on the Sunday to dodge the strikes.

Avanti West Coast says: “No trains will serve Penrith, Carlisle, Lockerbie, Motherwell, Glasgow Central, Haymarket or Edinburgh, and only a limited number of services will serve Lancaster and Oxenholme. All remaining trains will start / terminate at Preston.”

Northern will run rail alternative buses between Halifax and Huddersfield.

The CrossNation line between Derby and Burton-on-Trent is closed all weekend, with rail alternative buses and train diversions.

Monday 8 April

Greater Anglia will run to and from London Liverpool Street to Stansted airport, Southend, Colchester, Ipswich and Norwich.

Southern will run a shuttle service between London Victoria and Gatwick airport.

Thameslink will run a shuttle service between London St Pancras and Luton (city and airport stations).

Great Northern will run a shuttle service between London King’s Cross and Cambridge.

South Western Railway will run between London Waterloo, Woking and Guildford, with another suburban providers seemingly.

Southeastern is urging passengers to not journey, however will run providers between London St Pancras and Ashford on the high-speed line; Charing Cross and Orpington; and London Bridge and Dartford.

C2C has cancelled all providers.

What about the additional time ban?

Members are additionally refusing to work their relaxation days from Thursday 4 to Saturday 6 April and from Monday 8 to Tuesday 9 April. As many rail corporations rely upon drivers working additional time, a whole lot – probably hundreds – of trains will be cancelled.

Avanti West Coast and West Midlands Railway have already stated a lowered timetable will run on every day of the strike ban.

GWR says the additional time ban “is likely to cause some short-notice alterations and cancellations, especially at weekends or late at night”.

Which rail corporations should not concerned?

Some publicly funded train operators will run usually: ScotRail, Transport for Wales, Transport for London (together with the Elizabeth line) and Merseyrail.

“Open-access” operators on the East Coast primary line – Grand Central, Hull Trains and Lumo – are unaffected. But lots of their providers will be crowded on days of commercial motion. They duplicate journeys of strike-hit corporations, together with LNER, TransPennine Express, CrossNation and Northern.

What is at stake in the dispute?

The train drivers demand a pay rise to replicate excessive ranges of inflation since they final received a pay award; Aslef says some members haven’t had a rise for 5 years.

But the authorities insists that even a modest pay enhance is contingent on radical modifications to long-standing working preparations so as to cut back prices – and the enormous subsidies the railway is at present receiving from the taxpayer.

Since the pandemic, journey patterns have modified. Ticket income is about one-fifth down on pre-Covid ranges. As taxpayers will foot the eventual invoice for the train drivers’ pay rise, the Treasury in addition to the Department for Transport will log off any deal.

Ministers consider train drivers’ phrases and situations are a part of the drawback. To hold prices down, they have to settle for modifications to how they work, equivalent to making Sunday a part of the working week in all places.

On 27 April 2023 the Rail Delivery Group supplied a pay enhance of 4 plus 4 per cent over two years protecting the 2022 and 2023 pay awards – topic to a bunch of modifications on phrases and situations, protecting a variety of points together with driver coaching, Sunday working, sick pay and new know-how.

The union say this is utterly unacceptable. The train drivers will negotiate on modifications, however solely after they get a good no-strings pay supply on prime of their present pay.

They consider the cash will be discovered to satisfy their calls for, as it all the time has been in the previous. Aslef has additionally all the time “sold” reforms to working preparations for an additional few per cent on their pay and does intend to vary that course of.

Meanwhile, the corrosion in confidence amongst travellers continues, with no rail passenger capable of plan journeys greater than two weeks forward – that being the minimal discover the union should give for industrial motion.

What does the union say?

The common secretary of Aslef, Mick Whelan, stated: “Our members voted overwhelmingly – yet again – for strike action. Those votes show – yet again – a clear rejection by train drivers of the ridiculous offer put to us in April last year by the Rail Delivery Group which knew that offer would be rejected because a land grab for all the terms and conditions we have negotiated over the years would never be accepted by our members.

“Since then train drivers have voted, time and again, to take action in pursuit of a pay rise. That’s why Mark Harper, the transport secretary, is being disingenuous when he says that offer should have been put to members. Drivers wouldn’t vote for industrial action, again and again and again, if they thought that was a good offer. They don’t. That offer was dead in the water in April last year – and Mr Harper knows that.

“We asked Mr Harper, or his deputy, the rail minister Huw Merriman, to come and meet us. We asked the RDG and the TOCs to come and talk to us. We said, ‘Let’s sit around the table and negotiate.’ Because you say you don’t want any more industrial action, and we don’t want to disrupt the rail network. But the Tories and the TOCs [train operating companies] have given us no choice.

“We have given the government every opportunity to come to the table but it is now clear they do not want to resolve this dispute. They are happy for it go on and on. Because we are not going to give up.

“Many members have now not had a single penny increase in pay for half a decade.”

What do the employers and authorities say?

A Department for Transport spokesperson stated: “Aslef is the only rail union continuing to strike, targeting passengers and preventing their own members from voting on the pay offer that remains on the table.

“Having resolved disputes with all other rail unions, the Transport Secretary and Rail Minister have ensured that a pay offer is on the table – taking train drivers’ average salaries from £60,000 up to £65,000.”

A spokesperson for Rail Delivery Group, representing the train operators, stated: “Nobody wins when industrial action impacts people’s lives and livelihoods, and we will work hard to minimise any disruption to our passengers.

“We want to resolve this dispute, but the Aslef leadership need to recognise that hard-pressed taxpayers are continuing to contribute an extra £54 million a week just to keep services running post-Covid.

“We continue to seek an agreement with the Aslef leadership and remain open to talks to find a solution to this dispute.”

What does the Labour Party say?

Louise Haigh, Labour’s shadow transport secretary, stated: “It is a staggering dereliction of duty that the transport secretary hasn’t got around the table with the unions to try to resolve it since the Christmas before last.

“Labour will take an unashamedly different approach to the Tories, and will work with both sides to reach a deal in the interests of passengers and workers. If the transport secretary took this sensible approach then perhaps we wouldn’t still be having strikes on our railways.”

How a lot has all the disruption value?

According to the RDG, industrial motion from June 2022 up till mid-January 2024 value the rail sector round £775m in misplaced income. That doesn’t embrace the impact of the most up-to-date strikes and additional time bans, which in all probability add an extra £100m to the losses.

UKHospitality estimates the misplaced enterprise for locations to eat, drink and keep quantities to nearly £5 billion. Kate Nicholls, the organisation’s chief government, says: “Ongoing strike action hurts businesses, prevents people from getting to work and significantly erodes confidence in the rail network.”

In addition, there is an unknowable lack of income from passengers who’ve adjusted their life or discovered various types of transport; companies which have stopped making journeys and are utilizing on-line communication as an alternative; and folks trimming again on journey due to the lack of certainty.

What about the new minimal service ranges regulation?

Legislation now permits the transport secretary to stipulate minimal service ranges (MSLs) on strike days amounting to 40 per cent of the regular service. The authorities says the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 goals “to ensure that the public can continue to access services that they rely on, during strike action”.

No train operator is looking for to impose the new regulation on the train drivers’ union. LNER stated it would possibly achieve this earlier this yr, and opened consultations. Aslef instantly referred to as a separate five-day strike on LNER alone. Then the train operator stated it wouldn’t require drivers to work, and the strike was referred to as off.

The Transport Select Committee has beforehand warned of potential unintended penalties of the laws. The Conservative chair, Iain Stewart, stated: “There is a risk of MSLs worsening worker-employer relations and that, as a result, MSLs could end up making services less reliable.”

The minimal service stage guidelines don’t apply to union bans on non-contractual rest-day working – so there can be no profit in imposing the regulation when an additional time ban is in pressure.

What is the LNER-specific dispute about?

On Friday 19 and Sunday 21 April, Aslef members working for Aslef will refuse additional time. On Saturday 20 April, they will strike. The union has accused the rail agency of appearing in dangerous religion. Nigel Roebuck, full-time organiser in the northeast of England, accused ministers of “leaning on the company to persuade every driver manager and driver instructor to work on strike days; effectively to provide a minimum service level without invoking the legislation”.

The Department for Transport for a response.

An LNER spokesperson stated: “Our priority focus remains on minimising disruption to customers. We continue to encourage Aslef to work with us to find a way to end this long running dispute.”

Some cancellations are seemingly on 19 April, and many extra on 20 and 21 April.

Anything else on the strike agenda?

Members of the primary rail union, the RMT, who work for CrossNation are putting on Saturday 13 April in a dispute over recognition.